The Eastern women’s tennis team began its season under a new coach Friday at the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville invitational.

The Panthers swept Evansville in singles on Friday. Each member of the team earned at least one win in singles play.

Sophomore Grace Summers and freshman Srishti Slaria both ended the weekend with 2-1 records playing at the No. 3 and No. 5 spots, respectively.

Eastern brought in a new coach during the offseason in Emily Wang. Wang said she was happy with how everything went in her first match as the coach for the Panthers.

“I felt really encouraged and positive,” Wang said. “The team is dedicated to getting better and working hard, and that is all I can ask for. We had a lot of fun and got closer and I think that we have a lot to look forward to this year.”

Junior Kelly Iden was able to come out with a win in her first match of the year defeating Marina Moreno of Evansville, 6-4, 6-4. Iden finished 1-2 for the tournament.

Junior Maria Moshteva got a win in her only match of the tournament in singles as she defeated Sierra Halverson of tournament host SIUE, 5-7, 6-4, 10-4.

Everyone had strong starts to the year, according to Wang.

“Everyone has a lot of great qualities that compliment each other,” Wang said. “I was proud of Grace (Summers) for winning her second singles match in a third set 10-point tie breaker after losing her first singles match in a third set 10-point tie breaker.”

She said she was also happy with how Slaria was able to “shake of first college match nerves” and play well throughout the tournament.

The Panthers went 3-5 in doubles play combined.

The duo of senior Ali Foster and Iden defeated Marina Darzyan and Doreen Crasta of Evansville, 6-2, after losing to Lexi Aranda and Mia Frogner of SIUE, 6-3, and Eleonore Tchakarova and Verginie Trchakarova of Saint Louis University, 6-1.

Also nabbing a win for Eastern was the duo of senior Hannah Kimbrough and Summers as they defeated Kennedy Craig and Andjela Brguljan of Evansville, 6-2, as well.

Kimbrough and Summers got back on track after losing their first two doubles matches.

Although the Panthers did not get as many wins as they would have liked, Wang said the score does not quite show how close the matches actually were.

“We were right there with SLU and SIUE in singles,” Wang said. “As a whole, we fought hard and enjoyed playing and competing in our first tournament of the season.”

She added that the team has a lot of potential and is looking forward to stepping their game up for the tournament Eastern will host in two weeks.

SLU will be at the tournament on Sept. 26 and she knows the ladies will want to beat them this time around.

The tournament the Panthers will be hosting Sept. 26 will be the next time Eastern plays a match. They will host SLU along with Murray State at the Darling Courts.

Sean Hastings can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]